It looks like the Supreme Court might — might — yet again throw out a corruption conviction, this time in the case of Governor Cuomo’s former aide, Joseph Percoco, and we wonder if it might save money to set up a new circuit court to oversee New York. It could consist of three circuit riders: the New York Post’s Charles Gasparino, Future of Capitalism’s Ira Stoll, and a scrivener from the editorial board of The New York Sun.

Anyone reading their opinions could have figured out far in advance that the case against Percoco could come a cropper when the matter reached the Nine. For the federal  prosecutors and lower courts seem to have a congenital inability to conclude successfully public corruption cases against state officials — raising the question of why it’s federal, rather than state, prosecutors, pursuing these cases in the first place.

The theater of this battle is littered with the wreckage of previous attempts by the Justice Department to prosecute state officials — and not just New York’s — for corruption. The most shocking case was pressed by Justice’s John Smith, now the newly appointed special counsel pursuing President Trump. The G-Men secured the conviction of Virginia’s governor, Robert McDonnell, on charges that he did favors in exchange for gifts from a constituent. 

Yet the McDonnell case was tossed by a unanimous Supreme Court in 2016, when the Nine took the opportunity to tighten standards for prosecuting public bribery. Justice Stephen Breyer warned the prosecutors’ effort to punish Mr. McDonnell “puts at risk behavior that is common.” In 2020, the Supreme Court, in another unanimous decision, threw out the convictions of two aides of Governor Christie in New Jersey’s “Bridgegate.” 

New York in particular has become a potter’s field for Justice Department corruption prosecutions. The former leader of the state Senate, Joseph Bruno, was acquitted in a retrial after the Supreme Court threw out his conviction for mail fraud. The Assembly’s longtime leader, Sheldon Silver, was convicted — initially — on charges of fraud and money laundering for schemes in which he allegedly received millions for political favors. 

That conviction was reversed in 2017 by riders of the Second Circuit. Mr. Gasparino noted at the time that Silver’s case showed “What looks like sleazy or stupid behavior often isn’t illegal.” In 2018 Silver was again convicted in a retrial. Parts of the conviction were tossed in 2020 by the circuit riders, who warned that the case showed how “any official who accepts a thing of value” and then aids the donor in any way “could be vulnerable” to prosecution.

The riders let stand Silver’s convictions for money laundering and trading legal referrals for favors. He died in prison. Mr. Stoll notes that Silver’s conviction for “the notoriously vague crime” of “honest services fraud” proved to be “a death penalty.” Upon Silver’s first arrest, the Sun asked “Are we the only paper that is not entirely comfortable with the arrest” of Silver “on charges handed up by the federal government?”

In short, “On what authority is America reaching into the legislature of New York State?” Better, we contended, “had it been handled by New York State.” Why was the Empire State’s law enforcement system, running up to its attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, and its governor, Andrew Cuomo, incapable of handling the investigation and prosecution of public corruption at Albany? The failure to root it out was “the shame of New York.” 

New York’s default has left the task to federal prosecutors who are often politically motivated, lack regard for the principle of federalism, and have become inebriated with the Supremacy Clause. If they fail to stick the landing in the case of Mr. Percoco, a Cuomo throwback, it’ll be something. Next time around, prosecutors could save time and confer with Messrs. Stoll and Gasparino, and the Sun, before they file a public corruption case.